English blogs that test recipes for you are a dime a dozen. From Cookthebook.ca to Magazine Mondays Club and food blogs that “adapt” recipes from both books and magazines (think SmittenKitchen.com), many bloggers provide opinion, insight and recipes from recent publications. In Quebec, I have found no such equivalent. Yet we publish many cookbooks and some have even won prestigious international awards. Cooking stardom is even alive and kicking butt in our part of the world, where star chefs like to think of themselves as wild, sexy anarchists. Tattoos included.
As a food writer and cookbook ghost writer, I buy publications every month in order to keep myself current (and because I am obsessed, but that’s another story). From decade-old cookbooks by top chefs like Daniel Vézina or Anne Desjardins, to up-to-the-trend darlings like Patrice Demers and his “La carte des desserts”, 10 years and more of voracious purchasing have filled my groaning bookshelves to breaking point.
So in the next year, whenever my workload allows, I will be cooking from Québec cookbooks old and new—many of which I have bought but never cooked from! Each post will either/or include a quick intro about the book and its author, my opinion, and one or more recipes picked at random (or because they suit my family’s picky taste profile most probably).
You’d like to know more about the latest Quebec food best-sellers? You want to recommend a cookbook or chef for me to try out? Feel free to comment below.
And welcome to my test kitchen.
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